"Today, the European Parliament made history when it voted overwhelmingly to ban trade in seal products. This vote means that all three European Union (EU) institutions -- the Commission, the Council, and the Parliament -- are now in agreement, and seal products will no longer be placed on the market within the EU.

Europe has been a primary market for Canadian seal products, and many believe this ban spells the beginning of the end of the slaughter!

We could not have won this victory without you. Your letters, phone calls, faxes, and emails to MEPs, national governments, and other decision-makers showed that Europeans care deeply about the seals, and made it clear that the public expected nothing less than a strong ban.

We know that closing markets saves seals’ lives. Just the prospect of an EU ban on seal product trade was enough to drive the prices for seal fur down to just $15 Canadian per skin this year -- a decline of 86 percent since 2006. Many sealers chose not to hunt seals this year as a result -- and to date, out of a quota of 338,200 seals, just 57,622 have been killed. It is likely that when the seal hunt officially ends on 15 May, a quarter of a million seals will have been spared a horrible death. Now that the EU has banned its trade in seal products, countless more seals will live out their lives in peace from this year forward.

On our trips to the ice, Humane Society International has brought key opinion shapers such as Paul McCartney and Swedish Member of the European Parliament Carl Schlyter. After their trips, neither has wavered in speaking out against the hunt. Shortly after his trip to the ice, Carl drafted the first version of today’s EU ban. Our hunt footage was directly responsible for convincing the rest of the EU to agree to the ban. It gives me enormous satisfaction to know that we haven’t just documented the hunt, we have made history.

But even as we celebrate this amazing victory, we must remain vigilant. Because there is every chance the sealing industry will develop new markets.That is why we will continue maintaining economic pressure on Canada’s fishing industry through our boycott of Canadian seafood products. We will continue pressing for a strong law in Canada to stop commercial sealing. And we will continue to lobby other nations to ban seal products.

Please join us as we finally put an end to the cruel slaughter of baby seals. Become a monthly supporter of Humane Society International and help us keep the pressure on Canada. We are thrilled by our success in passing this ban today, but there is still more to be done.We are so close to putting this cruelty in the history books where it belongs -- thank you for being a part of this historic campaign to save the seals. I know we can count on you to stay with us as we bring a final end to Canada's commercial seal slaughter.